Thursday, November 27, 2008

Megan Meir bullying case: mom Lori Drew convicted of lesser offenses

Click HERE for update.

Update March 2009:
Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Krause is prosecuting a Missouri mother charged in a MySpace hoax that allegedly led to a 13-year-old girl's suicide.

ORIGINAL POST:

Jurors came to a different conclusion than AOL users, 81% of whom apparently wanted Lori Drew to be convicted of more serious charges.

I suspect that jurors were more aware of the facts of the case. Lori Drew tried to stop the hoax, and she didn't send the final, fatal message. Ashley Grills, the person who did send the "world would be better off without you" message, was given immunity by the court.

My question is: why hasn't this case resulted in action by schools to teach young people and adults better ways of handling conflict?

Schools are crucibles of bullying behavior by students, teachers and administrators; plenty of kids commit suicide because of bullying done in person, not over the Internet. Yet schools prefer to cover up bullying. Why?

First, because bullying is a big part of education culture.

Second, resistance to change is basic to education culture.

Third, because bullying is a constant source of revenue for insurance company lawyers. If bullying in schools ended, the lawyers would have less income, and the insurance companies (including joint powers authorities) would have to lower the premiums they charge schools.

My previous posts on Megan Meir are HERE.
Mom Guilty of Lesser Charges in Hoax
By GREG RISLING,
AP
LOS ANGELES
Nov. 27, 2008


A Missouri mother on trial in a landmark cyberbullying case was convicted Wednesday of only three minor offenses for her role in a mean-spirited Internet hoax that apparently drove a 13-year-old girl to suicide. The federal jury could not reach a verdict on the main charge against 49-year-old Lori Drew — conspiracy — and rejected three other felony counts of accessing computers without authorization to inflict emotional harm.

Instead, the panel found Drew guilty of three misdemeanor offenses of accessing computers without authorization. Each count is punishable by up to a year in prison and a $100,000 fine. Drew could have gotten 20 years if convicted of the four original charges.

A Missouri woman was convicted Wednesday of three lesser charges in an online hoax that apparently drove a 13-year-old girl to commit suicide. Lori Drew, 49, was accused of creating a fake profile on a social networking site in order to terrorize Megan Meier.

U.S. District Judge George Wu declared a mistrial on the conspiracy count. There was no immediate word on whether prosecutors would retry her...

Prosecutors said Drew wanted to humiliate Megan for saying mean things about Drew's teenage daughter. They said Drew knew Megan suffered from depression and was emotionally fragile...

Most members of the six-man, six-woman jury left court without speaking to reporters. One juror, who identified himself by his first name only, Marcilo, indicated jurors were not convinced Drew's actions involved the intent alleged by prosecutors.

"Some of the jurors just felt strongly that it wasn't tortious and everybody needed to stay with their feeling. That was really the balancing point," he said.

The case hinged on an unprecedented — and, some legal experts say, highly questionable — application of computer-fraud law.

Drew was not directly charged with causing Megan's death. Instead, prosecutors indicted her under the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, which in the past has been used in hacking and trademark theft cases.

Among other things, Drew was charged with conspiring to violate the fine print in MySpace's terms-of-service agreement, which prohibits the use of phony names and harassment of other MySpace members.

"This was a very aggressive, if not misguided, theory," said Matt Levine, a New York-based defense attorney and former federal prosecutor. "Unfortunately, there's not a law that covers every bad thing in the world. It's a bad idea to use laws that have very different purpose."

Drew's lawyer, Steward, contended his client had little to do with the content of the messages and was not at home when the final one was sent. Steward also argued that nobody reads the fine print on service agreements.

Prosecutors said Drew, her then-13-year-old daughter Sarah and Drew's 18-year-old business assistant Ashley Grills set up the phony MySpace profile for a boy named "Josh Evans," posting a photo of a bare-chested boy with tousled brown hair. "Josh" then told Megan she was "sexi" and assured her, "i love you so much."
Grills allegedly sent the final, insulting message to Megan before she killed herself in the St. Louis suburb of Dardenne Prairie, Mo.
Missouri authorities said there was no state law under which Drew could be charged. But federal prosecutors in California claimed jurisdiction because MySpace is based in Beverly Hills.
Sarah Drew testified she never saw her mother use the MySpace account. But Grills, testifying under immunity from prosecution, said she saw Drew type at least one message under the name Josh Evans.
After the suicide, Missouri passed a law against cyber-harassment. Similar federal legislation has been proposed on Capitol Hill.

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